Matteo Mancusso

This CD contains the first recording of the complete Chorale Variations by Daniel Magnus Gronau, a master from 17th century Danzig, “the finest musical soul ever to have graced the city of Danzig” as his pupils said after his death. He wrote a treatise on transposition, and the Chorale Variations form one of the most extensive compendiums of organ registrations of late Baroque organ music in Germany. Organist Matteo Venturini is a winner of no less than 8 prestigious organ competitions, and wrote a thesis on the organ music of Gronau. He plays on a magnificent Ghilardi Organ in the Church of San Rocco, Larciano. Booklet includes liner note and artist biography in Italian and English. All organ specifications are also included.

Johann Gottfried Müthel was the last pupil of the great Johann Sebastian Bach. He was present at the master’s deathbed, and he performed the funeral services, taking over the duties of the deceased Cantor. Mühtel’s music (“full of novelty, taste and grace” according to the great art historian and traveller Charles Burney) is of a wide variety: his Organ Fantasias are imposing, monumental and substantial, his chorale preludes offer intimate meditations on the chorale texts, all of it written in a highly original, dynamic musical language full of contrasts and instrumental virtuosity.